this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. new jersey governor chris christie has fired one of his top staffers saying she lied to him this coming after emails were leaked suggesting they planned a traffic jam in an act of revenge. >> i have had a tight knit group of people whom i trust implicitly. i had no reason to belief they weren't telling me the truth. it is heard breaking to me that i wasn't told the truth. i'm a very loyal guy. and i expect loyalty in turn. the president has unveiled his plan to fight the war on poverty. he has named the first five

areas he has called promise zones. dennis rodman now apologizing for heated exchange where he implied that kenneth bae, was guilty. he said he had been drinking. he had made a trip to the country to celebrate kim jong un's birthday. and those are our headlines. if you would like more, go to our website, aljazeera.com. "real money with ali velshi" is next on al jazeera america. ♪ i quit! that's a confident worker tells a bass and i'll tell you that what means for america's economic recovery. also the white house's push to eliminate poverty and create

jobs. plus sausages and the sweet smell of small business success. i'm ali velshi. this is "real money." ♪ >> this is "real money." you are the most important part of the show, so join our live conversation for the next half hour on twitter, or on facebook. how are you? i want to know how you are feeling? because the u.s. economy depends on americans feeling confident enough about their jobs and the labor market that they will spend money. that's why people like me are obsessed with how many jobs the economy created in december. we'll get that number tomorrow and i'll dissect it for you. in the meantime more people are

feeling confident enough about the labor market to quit their jobs. 2.4 million people apparently voluntarily resigned, up 15% from a year earlier. the increase tells me folks are more optimistic about fining another job. that's why the organizations that watch the quit numbers quickly, like janet yellen will get the numbers next week. in addition to your job, the value of your home is key how wealthy you feel and how much you'll spend. and today we got more evidence that some of the damage done by the bursting of the housing bubble is reseeding. data shows the number of borrowers who owe at least 25% more on their mortgage than their home is worth, fell to 9.3 million in december. down from 10.9 million last january.

rising home prices are reducing the number of these deeply underwater mortgages. a stronger job market and higher home prices are also helping americans get the rest of their financial house in order. a measure of delinquencies on all sorts of consumer debt fell to a record low in the third quarter of 2013. the index released today, tracks payments that are 30 days late on everything from home equity loans, car loans, personal loans. the delinquency rate for credit cards row rose slightly. some of the decline reflects consumers who remain cautious about spending and debt. that's another reminder that this recovery still has a way to go. here is another sign that consulars remain cautious the increasing home equity is translating into less spending than it used to, so for every dollar that home equity is raising these days, americans

are spending nearly a third less money than a decade ago. and according to chief economist at moody's analytics, confidence is the main ingredient that is missing for a stronger u.s. economy. mark joins me now. good to see you. >> thank you, ali. >> this confidence many things can drive it, jobs, housing, the stock market. >> yeah. >> why do we not see this confidence? is it because the recovery is taking too long. >> unemployment is still very high. is a really good economy we would have an unemployment rate of 5.56% something like that. and so we still a lot of unemployed people, and of course pay scales have been repressed for quite sometime. and the recession itself was almost five years ago, but it was pretty debilitating

psychologically. >> as an economist, what do you tell peep -- because gdp is no longer a measure that feels good for people. is this a good economy or weak economy? >> for those in the top particularly say third of the distribution, you have doing pretty well, you are lifting your net worth. if you have any debt at all, it's a 30-year fixed mortgage, and you reify down and you are in pretty good shape. if you are in the bottom half, these are still very difficult times, so it's two americas, but i will say, i think we're now getting to a part in the business cycle, where we'll pay a lot more jobs and the benefits will be much lower. so not everyone is go to benefit but more will benefit in the

future sthchl >> the fact that we have these two americas -- what you really need is most people in the middle with good incomes who are hopeful that their kids will have better incomes and can afford health care and a nice house. are we eroding the middle class? >> yes, in the long run, this is a big problem. the high income is doing well, but the jobs for middle income america, they are going to be tough to come by, because they are being driven out by technological change, globalization, to long run of the middle class will be under very significant pressure. the only way to attain that is raise the population scale. >> what would happen if we erode the middle class? >> our economy is built on the middle class? right? we're all going in the same

direction, moving up, and it's -- our economy -- economy flourishes when we all do well. if we're going to leave the middle class behind, i think we're not going to have the same kind of economies we have had in the past. and ultimately, if this begins to infect the political process, you know, this will only become self reinforcement and exacerbate itself. our economy can't grow strongly without everyone participating in it. >> explain to our viewers this taper. the fed has started to pull back just by $10 billion a month. the signs are if the economy chugs along they will pull back more. what is the -- consequence? >> well, interest rates are going to rise. they already are. so they are rising. what the fed is doing is trying

to manage the increase in long-term interest rates consistent with improve in the job market. this is a tricky balance for them. that's part of the tapering process that you mentioned. this is the biggest threat to any optimism about the economy near term, but i do think the fed has all of the tools they need to get this done in a graceful way, so i think they will pull it off. >> thank you for being with us. >> thank you, ali. the white house is targeting pockets of poverty in america. coming up we go into a community just picked as one of president obama's promise zones. and later a little home cooking with a sausage entrepreneur who sees the whole world as his meat market. in that story and more as "real money" continues. keep it here.

this week marks the 50th anniversary of president lincoln johnson declaring war on poverty. at the time 19% of americans lived in poverty. 23% of children. in the 50 years since the u.s. has spent $15 trillion to assist the poor. but today 15% of americans still live in poverty. it is numbers like this that has beobama administration pushing to improve income inequality. and today president obama named so-called promise zone. they include regions within los angeles, san antonio you, philadelphia, southern kentucky, and the chataw reservation.

>> we will help them succeed not with a hand out, but as partners every step of the way. and we're going to make sure it works, and hold them accountable to make sure it is making a difference in the lives of kids. >> officials haven't said how much the program will cost. it aims to assist 20 regions over the next three years. to take a closer look, let's head to the white house. mike viqueira is there on the north lawn. mike, what kind of federal assistance are we talking about here? >> yeah, everything from tax money, tax credits, providing medical expertise, streamlining red tape down to america core volunteers. his next state of the union is coming in, in two weeks.

these aren't really a new idea, aly. remember jack kemp when he was the hud secretary, and enterprise zones, empowerment zones. they have had mixed success in stimulating growth in urban areas, and the obama administration wants to extend this into rur ro -- rural towns and places that have seen decay. there is a tax component, the question is it going to be flying in congress? perhaps one positive sign in that regard, and no coincidence that'sern kentucky was one of these promise zones that was named, both mitch mcconnell and rand paul were on stage with the president, all of them rand paul, paul ryan, marco rubio,

all of them posing their own version of this. so it stands to get somewhere, but there are no safe bets. >> some republicans are supporting this but there are others who are not. what is the politics in the places that have been selected. >> everybody has been looking under the stones to determine if there is some sort of pattern here. i don't think you can really draw a straight line there. there was a long application process. mitch mcconnell said today that he actually wrote to the president asking that'sern kentucky be included among this initial five promise zones, but some of the criteria were they had to have average poverty of at least 20%. there can be vary in range in terms of population, 6,000 on the lowen, 200,000 on the top

end. they have to have some sort of job-creating institution. for instance, the major in philadelphia has drexel university. >> mike thanks for clearing that up. good to see you. as mike just mentioned philadelphia is one of the first five promise zones, specifically west philadelphia. the poverty rate in that community is 51%. unemployment is at 13.6%. and philadelphia major was at the white house earlier today and joins us now live from philly. good to see you, some of my viewers don't know i split my life between new york city and philadelphia. philadelphia is a great city, but it is a bifurcated city. a rich wonderful philadelphia, and a poor philadelphia. >> one, thanks for having me on, and congratulations on the new show. philadelphia is a dynamic diverse city, and we have a wide

range of demographic elements to the city of philadelphia, and what we're focused on with our promise zone is as the commentator mentioned the partnership with drexel university, mount vernon manner, lisk and our own poverty organization. so we leave there are great assets in that area. yes, there are high rates of poverty in many of those census tracks, high rates of unemployment in those areas, but still good housing stock in many areas, while there is also vacancy in some, but the elements are all there. the team worked very, very hard, put together a fantastic application. a whole group of folks working on this, and we're very fortunate and proud to have been selected, and i think ultimately

for us, part of that selection process was that we have a plan to deal with poverty in philadelphia, released last year, the shared prosperity plan for the city of philadelphia, which is city wide. >> what -- what do you do though? because this is such a big problem. we have seen in 50 years we have hardly reduced the number living in poverty. what is the plan? what kinds of things will make a real difference in dragging people out of poverty and giving them a shot at maybe being working class if not middle class? >> well, i think the idea here as the president has articulated, first and foremost, everyone has to work together. there are multiple funding sources coming into many of our cities and towns and tribal areas, coming from different

departments and agencies, in this concept, everyone has to work together, you are compiling those dollars and targeting them at the toughest areas in a particular section of a neighborhood, as opposed to really just spreading it all over the place. poverty is intergenerational, in many instances very, very complicated, it's about health care, education attainment, crime and violence and safety issues. it's about skill sets, and in some of these areas we have people over the age of 25, only 10% of whom have a bachelor's degree. so, again, that's why this partnership with drexel university is so critical to the overall plan. i am optimistic about it. the president has been pushing this idea and this issue for sometime. he is right. and as was mentioned earlier, we certainly need the congress to step up in this regard, provide those tax incentives and tax

credit programs to incentivize businesses to come into this particular area which is really gateway to much of philadelphia. >> how do we see it materializing? what do you see as being different five years from now? is it that strip you were talking about having more businesses? is it -- is it new housing developments? what -- what does it look like? >> it's those two things and i think much more. people going to school and whether or not they go to drexel and get inspired to go even to our community college or something, some additional education and training. it is more businesses coming. businesses come, they hire more people. that lowers your unemployment rate. it increases the economy in the community. replacing the housing stock or building new, someone has to work there, and that improves the overall economy of the city of philadelphia. so i think you'll see a

transformation in this part of west philadelphia, and people will literally see it happening right in front of their eyes, and the strength of the community organizations, i think bodes well for a coordinated plan, a targeted amount of activity over the long hall. this is not like something that is going to happen in the next month and suddenly total reci recitizati recitization. it will take time and effort and you have to get people thinking in a different way. >> you have a challenge ahead of you -- >> we're up to the challenge. >> good to see it. all right. coming up a sausage entrepreneur that has one reason that the exports have surged to a record level. think goat.

and in those cases where formal education isn't feasible because of the secur

lisa fletcher is here now with what is coming up on "the stream." i was distushed about your show, olympic hopefuls willing abused by their coaches? >> yeah, athletes say there is a

long history of abuse. >> all right. who have you got on the show? >> great guests including two former olympians who worked to expose the issue and protect athletes. >> all right. do not miss "stream" right after "real money." a already $194.9 billion, the commerce department shows that's the value of all of the goods and services that the united states exported in november. that includes stuff sold by small businesses like home style foods. exports account for 20% of his sales. we last spoke to david in late august just as he was kicking off a new company that sells

goat meat. let's get an update. david good to see you again. you and i have talked for some years now about manufacturing and being a small business person and the fact you export things. now you have gotten into this new business. you were exporting sausages to other countries, and now you are getting into the goat business. tell me about this. >> well, what happened when we looked at the opportunity of expanding. we thought about the possibility of doing a goat sausage. realized that maybe goat didn't have enough fat to create a sausage, but goat is the most widely eaten meat in the world. so we are doing a fresh product, a frozen product, and additional value-added products. a goat summer sausage and a goat jerky. >> 20% of your business is export. is it worth the hassle?

it is obviously a lot more complicated to export your sausages, the ones you already export. is it worth it? >> yes, it is. one of the things you have to consider is that in the united states we are moving forward in trying to do some sales. however, there are some impediments, one fuel costs. fuel costs are really putting a damper on our business. however, the global market gives us an opportunity to reach out and extent our product offerings to other places. this gives us an opportunity to expand our bottom line and also to hire new people. >> let's talk about this business. last time you were on, i followed my discussion with you with an economist who said, wow, it's unbelievable that an american is exporting meat products to brazil which is a meat-exporting company. we're always talking about how america is not competitive with other countries who have lower wage rates.

how are you successful to export to other countries that have lower wages and lower cost of product. >> one of the things that makes a difference is our usda and usda program. when we went into brazil, we went into a grocery store and looked at the ingredient list. you had milk serials, all kinds of fillers they are using. our product is all meat, no filler, no water as well. and that makes a substantial difference when you look at the quality of the meat. a lot of people want a cheap product, and based on the economies in those countries, they have to create a very cheap product, thereby when we come in as an imported item, they realize it has quality and can be sold at a higher price in

their community. in brazil for instance you have a growing middle class who can afford to buy imported products and they want to give them better quality products. >> what a great story of a successful business that is now able to go out and sell american products to the rest of the world. david, i look forward to continuing to follow your success story. >> well, ali we appreciate it. tell people to go buy gotcha goat. >> all right. we'll follow up with you on that. david martin is the president of gotcha goat and the widget trading company. here is a story about food and health that doesn't sound to healthy. americans are eating more butter. the trade group chalks that up to people embracing natural

foods and turns away from processed foods that can be high in trans-fat like margarine. however, butter isn't exactly health food, so take it easy folks. sales of traditional desktop and laptop computers fell 20%. gartner cited the shift to mobile as the main reason. pc sales dropped 7%. lenovo remained the top pc seller followed by hewlett-packard. it was just seven years ago that steve jobs unveiled the iphone proclaiming that today, quote, apple is going to reinvent the phone. until then you couldn't get one

device that combined all features. since 2007, apple has sold about 421 million iphones worldwide. that said iphone is not the world leader, samsung is. but here in the united states it is still half of the market. we have gone through the worst economic crisis since the great depression, but on this day, let's pay tribute to steve jobs and the phone he helped america create. that's our show for today on friday. the health of the job market and why college grads find themselves underemployed. we depend on you, >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> so join the conversation and make it your own. >> the stream. on al jazeera america and join the conversation online @ajamstream.

hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you are in "the stream." no question olympic hopefuls endure years of gruelling training, but behind the scenes many say they are suffering abuse at the hands of their coaches. we discuss the dark side to the olympics. ♪ omar is in tonight as digital producer. we'll be bringing in all of your live questions and comments throughout the show. i think there is a tendency and to look at the